"There is Darkness These Days."

I realize that I run the risk of being called a Tod Worner stalker but I'm banking on the fact that it's a risk worth taking once you read his latest post:

Forgive me. I am in a dark mood.

There is darkness these days. And sometimes, is seems, it approaches blackness. These days ISIS pours across the Middle East brazenly leaving the crucified, decapitated & raped in their wake. An unabashed Iranian regime with an undisputed record of deceit, oppression and genocidal aspirations moves ever closer to an internationally approved nuclear capability. A Russian despot without cover of ideology or provocation shamelessly violates every norm of international law in invading neighboring Ukraine. And meanwhile, we are asked to satisfy our appetites with a supremely dysfunctional Kardashian family in our homes and a sadomasochistic relationship at the movies.

These days language seems harsher. Appetites seem bigger. Knowledge is vast, but Wisdom is lost. Pleasure is plentiful, but Purpose is missing. Noise and Distraction reign, Silence and Reflection abscond.

There is darkness these days.

French Catholic writer Charles Peguy was shot and killed only months into the First World War. He was forty-one. And yet, even though he didn’t live to see the decadence of the ensuing decade, the despair of the Great Depression or the horrors of Bolshevism or Fascism, he made this observation,

“We are the last. Almost the ones after the last. Immediately after us begins the world we call, which we have called, which we shall not cease calling, the modern world. The world that tries to be clever. The world of the intelligent, of the advanced, of those who know, who don’t have to be shown a thing twice, who have nothing more to learn. The world of those who are not had on by fools. Like us. That is to say: the world of those who believe in nothing, not even in atheism, who devote themselves, who sacrifice themselves to nothing.”

But how did we get here? How did we allow things to get so dark? How did we become so clever? How did we stop believing in Something and start believing in Nothing?

Let me offer this.

Go read what he's offering.  Well worth the link click.

See if you can relate.  I certainly can and need the reminder Tod gives at the end.